Philips Unveil 803, 873 & 973 OLED TV Series: HDR10+, Ambilight

VT
Vincent Teoh

TP Vision, the Chinese company responsible for the development and marketing of Philips TVs in the UK and Europe, has this week unveiled its 2018 lineup of televisions at a launch event in Amsterdam. Of particular interest to our readers will be the Philips 803, 873 and 973 series of OLEDs.

Philips 2018 OLED TV

TPV’s OLED offerings will be spearheaded by the Philips 973 series we first saw at the IFA consumer electronics trade show back in September last year. Coming in only one screen size of 65 inches, the Philips 65OLED973 sports an award-winning design crafted from glass, aluminum and European Kvadrat speaker cloth. Notably there’s an integrated soundbase which delivers 60w of 6.1 audio output from six front-firing speakers and a backfiring Triple Ring speaker with inbuilt bass port.

One rung down is the Philips 873 OLED which is essentially the 65in brother to the critically acclaimed Philips 9002 which will continue to be sold in 2018 as a 55in model. Like the 55POS9002, the 65OLED873 features a cradle stand with a brushed metallic silver finish to impart an airy, floating look.

For 2018, TP Vision will also introduce a new entry-level range of OLED TVs, namely the Philips 803 series which will come in 55″ and 65″ versions. Truly the epitome of minimalism, the Philips 55OLED803 and 65OLED803 will have super-slim bezel in brushed metallic finish, as well as a low-profile styling that sits on two narrow rectangular feet set at right angles to the panel, although this raises the question of how an external soundbar can be accommodated.

All of Philips’ 2018 OLEDs will deliver the same picture quality, with an OLED panel capable of 900-nit peak brightness and 99% DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage, P5 Picture Perfect processing, UHD Premium certification, three-sided Ambilight integrated bias lighting system, built-in Google Assistant support, as well as Android M Smart TV system powered by quad-core processor.

The Philips 803, 873 and 973 will not only support the HDR10 open standard and HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma) HDR formats, but also the royalty-free HDR10+ (HDR10 Plus) dynamic metadata technology out of the box within the remits of HDMI 2.0b. Retrospective firmware upgrade for certain 2017 Philips televisions to add HDR10+ support is currently under consideration.

The Philips 873 and 973 will be available to buy in Europe from the first quarter of 2018, though for the UK market it may slip into the second quarter due to Freeview and BBC iPlayer certifications. The Philips 803 should arrive around May and June this year. Prices remain unannounced, but given that the Philips 9002 retails at £1,800 in the UK, the 55-inch 803 should be slightly more affordable.